Tourist arrivals from the United States increased 20 percent last year and those from Britain were up 10 percent. That pushed total arrivals to 9.5 million, 10 percent higher than the previous record in 2015, the Central Statistics Office said.

"While 2016 delivered an impressive performance... the British market is set to be challenging in the near future, particularly given the weakening of Sterling," said Paul Keeley, Director of Business Development with Ireland's national tourism development authority Failte Ireland.

Ireland's competitiveness suffered in the second half of 2016 from the impact of Britain's Brexit vote on the pound, though industry figures said this was cushioned by its perception as a safe destination compared with parts of Europe hit by militant attacks.

Ireland, which represents less than 1 percent of the European Union's population, last year attracted around 10 percent of the U.S. visitors to the bloc, Tourism Ireland said in a statement. Many Americans claim Irish ancestry.

Tourism employs around 10 percent of the workforce in Ireland, a member of the EU's single currency, and has recovered from an economic crisis to post the fastest economic growth in the EU for the past two years.